The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-08-19
70 LIVE A HUNDRED YEARS.
A Man Who Dies at Eighty Dies
Twenty Years Too Young.

| Forty, Lived To 30 One Hundred-How to
Die Natural Death.
Addison remarks in The Spectator
that, II tho lives Of philosophers be
compared with those of kings and
great men (meaning great warriors,
rulers, and so forth), it would almost
seem rs If tho life Of sage were pro-
portioned differently from the life of
other men. "For," he says, "we find
that the generality of these wise men
were nearer 100 than 60 years of age at
the time of their respective deaths"
lie attributes the difference to the tenn
perance and even abstemiousness which
most Of the ancient sages practiced,
which philosophers of modern times
have recognized as involving the true
secret of longevity.
But II il really is the case that by q
wise regimen and By diet so moder-
ate as to appear ascetic men may at
tain to fivescore years instead OF the
tourscore which the ancient Hebrew de-
scribes rs tho extreme limit of life,
then we shall have TO admit that the
lives OF all men who attain but to four
score years are in reality cut short by
careless living-at least where there is
no especial constitutional defect to
abridge the natural life. If this should
on inquiry appear to be the case,
difficulty which has long puzzled ply
Biologists would be removed. Limit
ing our attention to mammals, we find
that in all species except man tho dura-
ton OF life. apart from accident, ex-
goods about fvefold the time in which
maturity is attained. This is the av-
erage relation between the total length
Of life and the interval between birth
and maturity. The law is tolerably
uniform. The dog, for example, which
attaiDs its full growth and strength in
about five years, seldom lives beyond
twenty, while the elephant which re-
quirea full twenty years to attain his
full growth, lives for century.
OF ourselves, however, who require the
same time, or perhaps on the average
\ year or two longer, to attain our full
development, 1t has been said, as with |
1.-The days of our years are |
threoscore and ten, and though men be
10 strong that they live fourscore years,
yet is their strength then but labor and
sorrow, so soon passeth it away and we
arc gone" The psalmist (this particular
Psalm Is attributed to Moses) would |
probably have modified his opinion had
here been men in his day like our
English Gladstone, the moulder of
states DEGREES Ito say nothing of his
italwart Workmanship long after the
hreescore years and ten have passed.
,r Palmerson, prime minister in his
'ightieth year; or Brougham, full of
strength when long past even the four
core years. In Europe such men rs
doltke, and Bismarck show that the
rule does not now hold
,ood, whatever may have been the
aso in his time. But in our days. rs
n days of old. the philosopher lives
onger than the ruler, the statesman,
nd the warrior The same age which
las seen a Wellington die at 80 and a
'almerstQn at 70 has still living the
'hysicist Chevreul at over hundred,
nd has but lately lost the philanthro-
list Montefore, who also had passed
he century.
The common idea is, however, that
ongevity depends entirely on in
erited constitution. Probably there is
luch truth in this idea; but II is not
and the point seems worth
areful study, that longevity is affected
Indirectly rather than in directly by in
eritance. 1t may well be that the
ascendant of long-lived folk is apt to
Q long-lived. not solely or chiefly be-
ause he inherits constitutional peculi-
rites tending to length of life, but
ecause he inherits qualities leading to
importance and abstinence, by which
70 is prolonged, or even simply be-
ause temperance and abstinence have
cen encouraged during his youth by
xample and by precept
Considering the question of longe-
ity from this point Of view, the case of |
outs Cornaro. which has always been
fought most instructive, becomes full
$50 of encouragement
In the first place it must be remem-
ored that Cornaro (who was born at
enice about the year 1467) was man !
weak constitution. Moreover, from S
10 age of IS to that of 35 he pursued I
purses that would have seriously tax l
l the strongest constitution. Life at {
J was burden to him because of tho
Isorders brought on by riotous living J
nd indulgence in every kind of ex- I
,sses. The next five years were pass q
l in almost unremitted suffering. He t
as told by his physician, when 40 q
,ars old, that nothing would prolong {
a La fox mara AhaI, trun or thran | 4